The last surviving member of the 1950 Phillies "Whiz Kids," and a member of the Cardinals 1964 World Series Champs.
Several guys from that team are still around: Mike Shannon (OF), Dal Maxvill (SS), Julian Javier (2B), and Tim McCarver (C). Maxvill wasn't the starting SS; that was another PA homeboy, Dick Groat.
Simmons was one of a couple dozen players still alive who were born in the 1920's.
Another -- perhaps the oldest, for all I know, and almost certainly the oldest surviving MVP winner -- is 97 year old Bobby Shantz, ANOTHER kid from eastern PA. (He won that in 1952, going 24-7 for the Philadelphia Athletics, not the Phillies.) My uncle told me once that he played against Shantz in the minor leagues in PA, and I have no reason to doubt him, though I can't find a record of it.
Curt Simmons was one of those pitchers who could have had a Hall of Fame career, if one or two breaks went his way. Such guys are sometimes stymied by stupid managers who don't see their talent (Jim Perry, Wilbur Wood), or their pitching coaches don't help and their careers start too late (Mike Cuellar), or they get hit with injuries (Ron Guidry), or they get saddled with bad teams. Simmons got stuck with the Phillies in the 50's, and they weren't very good, and then he missed a whole season due to military service, and another whole season to injury. Still, his record (193-183) is very respectable, his ERA's were excellent when he was healthy, and had he played for the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Giants, the Braves, or the 1950's Indians, it could easily have been 30 games better both ways, and then you'd have a guy at 223-153, which is in the Catfish Hunter / Bob Lemon territory.
Anyway, he seems to have been a really good guy, married once (60 years), a solid teammate, not bad with the bat. After he retired from baseball, he and long-time teammate Robin Roberts and a bunch of other Phillies bought and operated a country-club and golf course in Ambler, PA, where Simmons lived until a few years ago.
